Front-wheel Brakes Barred on London.. Buses and Cabs.
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HE question of the need or advisability of equip -a ping lapses and cabs with front-wheel brakes has, naturally enough, often arisen in operating .circles and in official quarters. The efficiency of these brakes is no longer in question, for they have been amply tested on private ears, details of their design and of the design of all the parts of the vehicle primarily affected by brake stresses have been carefully studied and worked out, and to-day the bus-chassis designer would experience no difficulty in getting out useful and suitable designs for the vehicle in which he is concerned ; in fact, it is highly probable that every drawing office has its designs ready in case a sudden call is made for them.
But in London, which has always set the pace in bus-chassis design, front-wheel brakes on public carriages are not regarded with favour by the Public Carriage Department of New Scotland Yard. The Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, in a letter to us, says that this matter "has recently received his careful consideration as licensing authority, and, after consultation with his technical advisers, he has decided that the present time is not opportune for the introduction of such brakes upon licensed public carriages." • We can quite understand the line of thought adopted by the police in this matter, and we have some appreciation of the reasons which we assume to have been taken into consideration. The advantage offered by well-adjusted front-wheel brakes is the ability to pull up quickly. To meet the additional stresses imposed by their application it is necessary that the front axle, the springs and even a bus body must be, stiffened up. It is also necessary that a competent staff be engaged upon the adjustment of the brakes, and it is doubtful if the operator with one or two vehicles—buses or cabs • —is to be relied upon to carry out this important task with intelligence and efficiency. Incorrectly adjusted front-wheel brakes would be an undoubted source of danger.
The average cab driver in the Metropolis drives fairly fast because it pays him to do so, but he rarely runs into anything, and one feels that it were not wise to give him the capacity for driving even faster and for suddenly pulling up regardless of traffic following in his wake. The London bus• is not called upon to pull up any more quickly than it does, for its general speed is not so high as that of the private ear. Sudden and rapid Checking of speed on the part of a bus would, therefore, be dangerous to following traffic, but a still more cogent reason is to be found in the fact that, whenever a bus has overturned, the root cause has always been a combination of full 'steering lock and of powerful braking action. The forward motion of the bus is checked by the brakes, but no check can be put upon momentum, which continues in the original line of motion, causing the overturn. A more powerful brake equipment would aggravate rather than alleviate this risk, and it may be remembered that, among the proposals for the revision of the regulations controlling bus construction is one for a reduction in the maximum front-wheel lock to be permitted in future.
Thus, it would seem that there is no need for front-wheel brakes upon public-service vehicles operating in urban areas, sufficient brake power already being insisted upon by the regulations, whilst there is even a risk of an increase in traffic dangers if they were permitted. This, obviously, does not mean to say that with other later develop. ments the undoubted advantages of -front-wheel brakes will not ultimately be employed.
The Prospects of Road Transport in Ireland.
Ts HE recent National Road Transport Congress, held in Dublin, was an outstanding success, Its proceedings bear testimony to a deep-seated wish on the part of all sections of the community to pull together. We consider that sincere congratulations may very properly be offered to the promoters, and we feel that much good will come of this combined effort in the case primarily of the Free State, but also of Ireland as a whole.
The Congress largely was dominated, as is natural in the case of Ireland, by representatives of the farming industry, but it was also attended to a representative extent by those who were entitled to speak for the county councils and other local authorities, for private and commercial motorists, and for the railway, shipping, dock and Larbour and tramway branches of contemporary transport activity. Politicians were prominent by reason of their absence, and it is noteworthy that there .appears to be a widely expressed wish in Ireland to make progress despite their fulminations. On the other hand, it is clear that the favourable regard of the Free State Government must be secured, and will be secured, to the end that modern road transport shall pull its weight in Ireland's rehabilitation.
We reported in our last issue the striking note of unity exhibited in the resolution of the Congress calling upon the Governments of both the Free State and Northern Ireland to confer regarding co-operation in transport. We understand that the Government of the Free State has not given its assent to proposals for penal taxation of commetcial motors, such as those with which the Northern Government has been toying. Whilst there may be temporary grounds for not wishing to see large numbers of the heaviest vehicles placed upon some Irish highways, it is clear that all vehicles capable of being run on pneumatic tyres should be encouraged. The heaviest vehicles should not be forbidden general user of city streets.
Unless the Irish farmer can get his produce to market quickly and in good condition, the inroads of external competition will be accentuated—of which typical instances are the growing consumption of New Zealand butter and American bacon in t18 Ireland, whilst the export trade to her chief customer, England, will dwindle. Road services are Ireland's most urgent need.
Developments in motorbus and motor-coach transportation appear likely to be developed almost at once. It will be a farther cry, and a longer job, to master intricacies of the collection, assembly and despatch of Irish dairy and farming produce. We are none the less convinced that Ireland has everything to gain, and nothing-to lose, from giving the utmost consideration and fair-play to commercial motoring mall its branches. The country is ripe -for well-considered transport development by commercialiniotors, subject to their judicious selection and economic management.
One other aspect of the situation calls for mention. It is hard to follow why hire-purchase development in Ireland has in the past been relatively negligible. The small farmer, we think, might well.' accept this means of financing his own local transport.
Why Not the Chief Agricultural Shows of 1926?
-NT OW that the last of the shows appealing to the farmer and stock breeder have been held, the time is ripe fora consideration of the attitude of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (based upon the recommendations and proposals of the Commercial Vehicle Committees —steam and petrol) on the question of vehicle exhibits at agricultural and live-stock shows. One of the greatest fallacies is that the farmer and the stock breeder attend the Commercial Motor Show at Olympia promoted by the Society. We have kept a careful look-out at each Show for members of the agricultural community and have never seen them—unless the potential buyer of commercial motors is entirely different in style and appearance from the keen, burly gentlemen in home-spuns that we see at the Royal and other agricultural and cattle shows, or enters Olympia's doors heavily disguised !
We believe that only the most meagre appeal is made by the motor trade to the farmer and stock breeder, and it puzzles us very much to understand why. A dozen salesmen could call on a farmer in the course of a year and never move him one yard towards a change in his existing transport methods, but a display, at a show to which he had gone for enlightenment, of wagons and lorries equipped with all the types of bodies that would meet his requirements would make a distinct impression on his mind, whilst if all the transport vehicles were brought into one section (as was once done at a Royal Show) we honestly believe that business of a useful nature would result, and it would have this distinct advantage —that exhibitors grouped in a section could definitely gauge the amount of interest created by that section.
Early in the New Year the Society must discuss the question of the recognition of certain agricultural shows. We strongly recommend the council and committees to consider a change of policy and a reversion to former methods. Let there be promoted definite sections of motor vehicles and appurtenances, steam, petrol and electric, at, at least, six or seven of the. leading shows, including the Royal, the Bath and West, the Highland, the Northern Counties, the Dublin and the Belfast Shows, and let a determined effort be put forward to place useful propaganda In favour of mechanical road transport before those actively engaged in the greatest of all our industries. The average farmer, whilst being wise in his conservatism, is always open to consider new ideas, and much more so if they are presented to him at his own shows and in his own language.